


the ache for home

by littleboxes



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Has A Sibling (Julie and The Phantoms), Families of Choice, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Light Angst, Male Friendship, Protective Bobby | Trevor Wilson (Julie and the Phantoms), bobby was a good friend and a valued member of the band prior to the orpheum god damn it, bobby's mom is a nurse, youre only a real band if you all live together in your friend's garage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27010477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/littleboxes
Summary: "The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." - Maya Angelou(Bobby's garage gets infested with band members.)
Relationships: Alex & Bobby | Trevor Wilson, Alex & Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Luke Patterson, Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Reggie
Comments: 40
Kudos: 253





	the ache for home

**Author's Note:**

> me watching jatp the first time: FUCK bobby, i hope he chokes  
> me now: okay, listen, he was a part of the band and no WAY luke would play with anyone he didn't vibe with, and you know alex was out to the guys and bobby was clearly okay with that, and your three best friends dying??? together??? on the DAY you're supposed to fucking achieve the dream you've all been working towards for YEARS???? has to be fucking traumatic as hell and actually-  
> anyway. headcanons that aren't really relevant but inform how i write bobby: he's a year older than the guys, so 18. his mom's a nurse. he can and will commit crimes to protect his friends. does he tear down luke's missing person posters whenever he sees them? maybe  
> i just used owen's last name for alex bc they don't have canon last names, which is a crime

Alex is ten minutes late to practice when he storms through the doors. Luke turns to rib on him for finally being the late one, after all the times he’d complained about the others showing up late, but comes up short. So does Bobby. Reggie stares, wide-eyed. 

His hair’s a mess and and his drumsticks are stuffed haphazardly into his hoodie pocket instead of his jeans and there’s a bruise on his face and he’s clearly been crying, and he stops a few feet into the studio and in the silence they can hear him breathing in a way that usually means he’s going to start hyperventilating. 

“They kicked me out,” he says, looking at them, but clearly somewhere else. 

Reggie’s the one to stand up and walk over. He puts a questioning hand on Alex’s shoulder, and Alex somehow gets stiffer for a second, before collapsing into Reggie’s arms. 

Practice is effectively cancelled, after that. They spend a fair amount of time in a hug pile, Bobby making sure not to crush anybody and Luke carefully setting Alex’s drumsticks a safe distance away and Reggie humming a vaguely country tune under his breath. 

Then, Alex tells them what happened. Not all of it, and they don’t pry, but even if his parents would let him come back, it’s clear Alex can't go. They heard something from one of the neighbors, apparently, and it escalated into threats about _rehabilitation_ that make Bobby want to throw his guitar across the room, or into Alex’s parents’ faces. Preferably into Alex’s parents’ faces, actually.

Alex’s face falls, toward the end, when he realizes all he technically owns now is what’s on him. 

Luke is the one to suggest going back and stealing whatever he needs. 

They’re all going with, obviously, and Luke splits everybody into categories. Alex on personal stuff, Reggie on clothes, Luke on toiletries, and Bobby on anything heavy. 

Bobby offers to throw some rocks through his parents’ bedroom windows, and it’s almost a joke. Alex laughs wetly and says no, but on their way Bobby picks up a few stones anyway. Just in case. 

Their stealth mission goes about as according to plan as it can, until there’s a little girl in the doorway looking at Alex- specifically, the bruise on his face- with wide eyes, and then there’s some frantic whispering and a near miss with tears, but they make it out without being detected. Then one of Alex’s nosy neighbors turns on their lawn lights and they sprint away, laughing, with the sound of an old woman yelling at their backs.

(About a week later, a rainbow flag almost as tall as Alex appears on the studio wall, next to the official _Sunset Curve_ banner, and Alex cries when he sees it.)

(A few days later, Bobby’s a few minutes late to practice, and brushes off the teasing with a _had to finish up a job for a friend_.) 

(That same day, the master bedroom of the Joyner residence is filled with mysteriously acquired, very distressed hens, and it’s the better part of a week to clean the mess they leave behind.)

(Bobby thinks they should be grateful he talked himself out of the rock plan, and maybe start locking their windows.)

* * *

It’s just barely a year later that Bobby’s garage gets another tenant. Alex has taken up residence in the loft, and Reggie’s messing around on his bass, and none of them are very worried that Luke is late, because he always ends up arriving late, usually with a new song and a wild, excited look in his eyes. 

Figures, then, this time he shows up furious and muttering, with his guitar and a duffel bag precariously balanced on his bike. 

He won’t say anything other than he and his mom argued about the band, but when he asks Bobby if he can crash here his voice is suspiciously scratchy. Of course Bobby says yes, because it’s Luke, and because there’s three inches of snow on the ground and because it's way too cold to be riding a bike despite Luke doing it anyway, and because it’s the day before the christmas that Luke was really looking forward to because he was going to play their demo CD for his parents to hopefully get them to finally _understand_ , and because now he’s standing in Bobby’s garage looking distraught. 

Reggie asks if they need to go break into another house before Bobby can, and Alex stares at Luke nervously, but he just shakes his head. 

They never go back to Luke’s house for his stuff (although a few months into Luke crashing on the couch, Bobby walks in on him sitting on there with leaves in his hair, looking upset and scribbling in his song book) but their couch somehow ends up Luke’s couch anyway, and Luke living in the studio has made him even more crazy about their practice schedule, and Bobby just sighs. He’s been on a writing spree, at least, so they’re not short on album material.

(He doesn’t say anything when Luke leaves his journal open and he sees a page full of scratched out lyrics. Just closes it and shoves it across the table.) 

(Doesn’t say anything when they actually start practicing Unsaid Emily, but decides he’s glad he can finally put away Plan H v.2 for good. Having to wear long sleeves for a week into summer in order to hide the scratch marks _sucks_.)

(It’s a good thing his mom likes his friends, even if she’s usually too busy at the hospital to stop in and say hi.)

* * *

  
  


Reggie never has a dramatic moment, like Alex and Luke. He just starts staying at the studio longer and longer, and it’s Reggie, so none of them question it when he smiles and says he likes spending time with his friends. They all know how loud his parents get, anyway. 

So Reggie starts staying over to help Luke through especially stubborn choruses and coincidentally passing out on the floor next to the couch because it's too late to catch the bus, and then there’s another bass in the corner, an older and more beat up one that’s just easier to leave here, and then he starts leaving his leather jacket on the chair and a flannel in the corner and then the part of the garage that’s a pile of black trash bags Alex has labeled the communal closet gets bigger. 

Once it’s been a full week without Reggie leaving to go home, he sighs. Grabs an air mattress and a spare sheet from the house, sets it up in the last free corner, and at the end of the day when Reggie looks like he’s about to come up with another reason to stay late and help Luke write, Bobby just gently shoves him onto the mattress. 

“The blanket’s from the spare room, which any of you guys could be using, by the way, but if you don’t like it we can go and grab your stuff. It’s not like your house is any harder to break into than Alex’s.”

Reggie blinks and then launches himself at Bobby. Bobby ignores the smile that wants to grow on his face and hugs Reggie back, before pushing him away. 

“I should be charging you guys rent at this point,” he grumbles, and Luke laughs. 

“I’m paying you in songs, dude! Once we’re legends, we’ll back pay you, yeah?”

Bobby rolls his eyes, and picks up his guitar.

* * *

They practice, and practice, and as the lines between living space and studio space begin to blur, he absolutely refuses to acknowledge that he spends more time in his garage than his perfectly functional bedroom. 

They’re just on a roll right now, and it’s looking like they might actually get to play the _Orpheum_ this summer, and it’s easier to not walk up to the house in the dark after practices run long and risk waking up his mom when she barely gets enough sleep anyway. (Practices inevitably run long, with ¾ of the band living in their studio.) 

The comforter he brought down means _nothing_ , it’s just _cold_ , and none of them can prove that’s his vest in the closet pile- and that’s a mistake, because now Reggie won’t _give him his vest back_ \- and because Luke is the one that keeps them practicing into the night, this is all Luke’s fault, which is why Bobby throws a pillow at his head and ignores the laughter.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are, ofc, appreciated <3


End file.
